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Career: 5 tips for keeping your groove when you lose your job

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Losing your job is no fun. It comes with a mix of emotions. In fact, studies show you will go through a full cycle of grief when you lose a job. This includes: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and, finally acceptance. So how do you avoid getting stuck in one stage of the cycle? How do you keep your groove when you lose your job?

1) Breathe (and cry if necessary): Tears may come and, if they do, it is best that you don’t try to stuff them. Delaying your grieving process may leave you stuck. Take deep breaths and cry as much as you need to, alone or with friends. Just let it out.

Read the rest of my article on PuckerMob.

 

yoga prop
What yoga taught me about business
yoga prop
Using props is important, in yoga and in business.

The other day I was taking Theresa Simmons’ yoga class at Eagle Fitness in Carson City. We were doing what I considered to be a basic pose. I don’t remember the name right now. However, it was a pose where I didn’t feel like I needed to reach for my blocks. “Use the blocks, that’s what they are there for,” she said.

Immediately my ego shouted at me “No!” “I won’t use blocks for this pose!” “I don’t want to look like I don’t know what I am doing.” “I don’t want to appear weak.” “I can do it without help!”

Yet, the one thing yoga practice has done for me is that it has helped calm my monkey mind. And boy can that thing chatter! It has taught me to challenge my ego. Sometimes, challenging my ego means accepting help from a block made of cork.

Immediately, the pose felt better. I wasn’t straining as hard. I could breathe. Even in the simplest of poses, utilizing my props made it easier.

Suddenly, it all came together. I haven’t been using my props (my support system) in business!

The ego shouting sounded the same in a business context. “No!” “I won’t sub-contract this out!” “I won’t ask for help. I don’t want to look like I don’t know what I’m doing!” “I have 20 years of experience. I don’t want to appear weak.” “I can do it without help.”

I have been blessed to have a great support system. This system grows every day as I open myself up to possibility. When I use my blocks in yoga, I don’t hurt. When I use my support system in business, I also don’t hurt. Things…. flow.

Coaches are like blocks, too. We are business yogis of a sort. We help correct your poses. We connect the asanas. I used to hate it when a yoga teacher would provide an adjustment or correction. That, too, provided a business lesson. Sometimes, we need our teachers. We need our blocks, our straps, our bolsters, our blankets, to help get us to the next level.

That, my friends, is going with the flow of business.

Daily Exercise: Choose one area where you will ask for help today. Comment about it below.

Low budget? Here’s how to save $$$$!

Recently, we’ve had the opportunity to work with several wonderful companies across the nation. All of them faced a similar issue. “We need help but agencies want to charge us an arm and a leg to do it for us.” My response to that is, “well, how much are you able to do on your side?” Inevitably, the client will come up with a list of marketing activities they could use current staff to do. At that point, they start to see that human resources are usable to get things done. Need a business to business database? How about setting your admin loose on the Internet and having them pick up the phone to get names, numbers and addresses? LinkedIn is a fabulous resource that can get you in front of the right people. Need to revitalize your social media? How about educating that excited young intern on how to execute your social campaigns? Two private hours invested in development can lead to hundreds of hours of execution, a project you didn’t have to pay an agency for.

Every marketing tactic has a hard cost and a sweat equity cost. When executing your campaigns, weigh the cost of each. Could you develop your team through education to get it done at a lower cost?

These days, there’s an agency for everything: advertising, marketing, social media, direct marketing, pay-per-click, copywriting, graphic design, web design – and yes, we have these experts at our disposal too. However, if you have a low budget, nothing delivers results per dollar like education.

Today’s Exercise: Take some notes! What do you need done? Write the project name at the top of a piece of paper. Then, make two columns. Column One: Resources I Have, Column Two: Resources I Need.  Now, next to those two columns, add two more columns with a $. This represents what those resources will cost you to complete the project.  (Feel free to budget if you don’t know the actual cost of what you need.)  Now, look at what you need. Is there any way you can leverage what you have to fill any of those needs? Change the columns until the budget fits your target amount.

This simple exercise will help you resource plan your project. Need to talk it out? Do so in the comments below. Need help resource planning your next project? Can’t make it fit within your budget?  Contact us.

Are you sabotaging your relationships?

Yesterday, I watched a very compelling video about cell phone use and how it can make a partner feel alienated, alone, and unimportant. If you missed it, watch it right here.

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There are dozens, if not hundreds, of little things we do to test our relationships. Those relationships can be business, romantic, sexual, or just plain friendly. These tests are designed to set up boundaries, test boundaries, and protect ourselves. Sometimes, though, the tests go too far. This results in missed opportunities as you push away potentially great relationships, business partners, friends, and lovers. If you have people cycling in and out of your life at a frequent pace, you might be doing this to yourself. It can result in job loss, heart break, and unfulfilled goals and dreams. If you haven’t caught the jist yet, it’s not a good thing.

TODAY’S EXERCISE

Ask yourself:

1) Do I distrust immediately or do I wait for trust to be broken?

2) Do I ask myself, where is this going to fail?

3) Do you start trying to fix problems before problems occur?

4) Do you test business partners by coming up too close to or missing deadlines, unintentionally not delivering or breaking promises, rescheduling meetings on a short time frame?

5) Do you have a set of standards in mind that, if not strictly upheld, that person is out of your circle?

6) Are you as hard on others as you are on yourself?

7) Do you challenge others often and end up in heated discussions?

8) Does life/work feel like a game of “Survivor” where either you compete or you are voted off the island?

9) Do you isolate yourself from individuals or groups by directing your attention to your cell phone, the television, or something that takes you away from the present moment?

10) Do you voice your concerns or do you “stuff” them and build resentment?

Answer these questions openly and honestly with yourself. You don’t have to tell anyone your answers. However, if you answered YES to three or more of these questions, you may be sabotaging your relationships.  Reframing your mindset is key to keeping an open mind. If you need assistance in doing this, feel free to contact us.

What Works for Northern Nevada Scholarship

scholarshipNevada is a known incubator for business. If you own/operate a business in Nevada within 100 miles of Carson City and need a hand up, the What Works for Northern Nevada Scholarship may be able to help. Each month, we invest $1,000 in tuition to five different students. ($200 award each) The award may be specific, such as entry into a live or online workshop, or general – to be used for general business help.

 

 

 

To qualify for the scholarship, the business must be:

  • Currently in existence (doing business now)
  • Located in Nevada within 100 miles of Carson City
  • Exhibit a clear need for business help

Qualified? Apply for the scholarship now!

 

 

Give a Man a Fish
What costs less, learning to do it or having it done?

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If you’ve read the story about What Works, you know that our firm used to be all about taking over the reins – being an installed executive, doing your email programs, web sites, marketing plans and marketing campaigns for you. Can we still refer you to people who can do it for you if you need it? Absolutely! We do that every day. But what we really prefer to do is coach you on HOW to do it. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” That old Chinese Proverb is actually very true.

Think about it. If we teach you What Works for your unique situation, than you have the power, the knowledge, to continue forward and repeat that process if your issue should ever recur again. However, if we say – “here, let’s just do that for you, charge you this nifty one time fee and its done,” what’s the result? Sure, its done for you. The issue has been handled – THIS TIME. However, the next time you need something done, you are stuck in the mud. At that point you look for a new solution, a new vendor,  or a new whatever.  Why look for something new over and over again when you can participate in the development of your own trusted, tried and true tools? At What Works, we give you the tools to be unstuck.

Today’s exercise: Think of past situation where something “stuck” in your business. How did it get there? Where did you shift things to unstick it? What guidance would you give yourself now that it’s unstuck? Did your solution teach you how to fish or was it a Band-Aid to get past temporary pain?

When you see an issue, you need to fish for lasting solutions or rush for a quick fix?

Tell us all about it in the comments below and, if we can help, contact us.